So Much For Background Checks

Like everyone here I was saddened to read of the mass shooting that happened in Illinois last week.  Dude got laid off, pulled a gun and started shooting, killing six and wounding several more, including cops.  I was expecting to have ILGov Fatboi Pritzker immediately start calling for more stringent gun control laws etc., and was wondering what was taking him so long.  Here’s probably why the delay:

The chief also released new details about Martin’s criminal background and the weapon in the shooting.
Martin should have been legally barred from purchasing a gun due to his felony record. He had a 1995 conviction for aggravated assault for stabbing a woman in Marshall County, Mississippi.
However, in January 2014, Martin applied for and was issued an Illinois Firearm Owners Identification (FOI) card, which is required to own or purchase a gun in Illinois.
On March 6 2014, Martin applied to purchase a handgun at a licensed dealer in Aurora. Five days later, he took possession of a Smith & Wesson .40 caliber revolver, the same type of gun described as the weapon in Sunday’s shooting.
On March 16 2014, Martin applied for a Concealed Carry permit in an unknown location. He was fingerprinted during the background check, and his prior felony conviction came to light during the background check.
At the discovery, Martin’s CCW application was rejected, and his FOI card was revoked. He apparently retained possession of the handgun, however.
Ziman was unable to explain why the felony conviction did not prevent Martin from obtaining a FOI card in the first place, merely saying it was possible that it would not have been discovered until the more rigorous CCW check.

So much for the much-vaunted background checks we’re always hearing about.  Illinois screwed up, and six people died because of it.  I would hope that the murdered people’s families initiate a class-action lawsuit for negligence against the state, because a law unenforced isn’t a law.  Of course, Illinois is bankrupt because they’re paying off (or not even paying) excessively-high entitlements to former government workers, so the lawsuit might be a waste of time.  And needless to say, the gnomes at the IL State Police (representing “police power”, see below) won’t be fired for negligence because unions.

One last thing about the choirboy’s gun:  S&W doesn’t make a revolver chambered in .40 S&W, so it must have been a semi-automatic pistol  (Clueless Journalism 101).


State of Illinois constitution, Article I, Section 22:
“Subject only to the police power, the right of the individual citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

10 comments

  1. Kim,
    Everything you say is true. Sad, but true. There have been sporadic reports that the scumbag chicken-shit shooter also had a laser on his pistol. One report mentioned a green laser, implying that green is somehow more extra-special killy than any other color laser, but I digress. I’m expecting JB Fatboi Toilet-Yanker Pritzker, or one of his minions, to soon float a piece of legislation banning the possession and use of laser aiming devices in .. 3 .. 2 .. 1 .. NOW.

    Retirement and departure from this shithole can’t get here fast enough. Is it too early in the morning for 100 proof rye?

    1. It’s NEVER too early in the morning for 100 proof rye, if you’re a gun owner living in Illinois.

  2. I’m curious as to how a fingerprint check turned up an almost twenty year-old felony conviction in another state.

    And yes Brad, expect a big push to add laser sights to the “Things Subjects Are Not Allowed to Have Anymore” list.

  3. When I were a lad, the closest I could get to a pistol were the ones pictured in the S&W catalogue. So lots of catalogue reading in the slow days at boarding school.
    S&W had a .41 Mag revolver, and what is 0.01″ between friends?…but can the average Joe still get ammo for it?
    And I recall a S&W in 10mm at a dealers store. I got to touch it! Used 1/2 moon clips (or similar) to keep the bullets in place. I guess you can put a .40 bullet in that if you wish. But I still think of it as a 10mm.
    Nah, I think the reporter has stuffed-up the details.

    1. S&W Model 610 revolver. Worked with moon clips, and could handle .40 short and weak as long as you didn’t mind scrubbing the carbon rings out of the cylinder to use 10mm in it again (I have the same problem shooting .32S&W Long in a .32H&R model 16).

      We are looking at fast tracking retirement so we can leave this shithole state before they start charging an exit tax demanding our fair share of their circle-jerk pension shortages, or Indiana, Wisconsin, and other neighboring states put a wall up to keep the cancer from getting into their states as quickly.

      1. @Duodec … Shhhhhh. Stop all that talk about an “exit tax.” Don’t give the socialist progs any ideas. A few Jews escaped Nazi Germany, but only after handing over their entire wealth to the state. I have ancestors who got out with only the contents of one suitcase and a few family photos. In case Julie Morrison, Daniel Didech, Congressman Brad Schneider, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Sen. Dick Durbin, or any of their charges are reading this, NO, I am not equating IL governments to 1930’s Germany. No. I am saying your progressive ideas have failed, and it is driving away huge swaths of people.

        1. Saw a segment on Fox Business where they’re proposing a tax on 401ks to pay off the bloated pubic pensions.

  4. “Subject only to the police power, the right of the individual citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

    Kim, you and I both know that that first clause guarantees that right is going to be infringed like hell.

  5. Lemme go ahead and cut this motherfucker off at the eyeballs.
    First off, that parchment has nothing to do with me.
    Yeah, I’m one of them.
    It has to do with the gov’t. Only.

    But, but, ghost, what about my constitutional rights, you know, the ones that are guaranteed?

    It does nothing of the such, and when you encounter anyone that says it does you should punch them right in the face.

    Rights are inherent. If you look at the DoI they are called “unalienable”.
    I prefer to think of them as “natural” as you are born with them.
    A gov’t cannot bestow rights, because you already have them.
    Don’t mistake rights for privileges, they ain’t the same thing.
    Your drivers license is a privilege, so the gov’t can take it away. poof, gone.
    Rights can only be taken by criminal force.

    Now, let’s get down to the nitty gritty.
    “…the right of the people to…”
    See the word “right” from the 2nd amendment?
    What right do you suppose that is referring to?
    Correct.
    The “pre-existing” right that you have the moment you are born, your natural right. Your natural right to private property including your life was yours from the very beginning of your life and that right existed in all lives when they were born. That includes all lives that existed before the 2nd amendment was written.

    So when someone says your right to private property (your life, your guns, your knives, your cheezy sox, whatever you possess) can be taken away at whim remember that they are including your life in that threat.

    See, it’s not about guns, and never was. It’s about whether YOU own YOUR life and whether “the people” can dispose of or use your life as they see fit.

    This is such a plain and simple truth that it’s embarrassing that so many people in this country (the majority, including most politicians) seem oblivious or ignorant to it. This could only happen AFTER the public daycare system was hijacked by the largest criminal system in world history. 100 years ago the average person was 10 times as smart as the average person today and that’s why silly debates about the constitution were very rare.

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